With This Heart

Chapter Two

Erik returned with a smug smile and a bucket half full of milk. He handed it to Anne who stood there in shock.
"I said it was no problem."
"I knew you could do it, why the smugness?" she asked.
"Rubbish! You didn't think I could get one drop out of that cow, did you?"
Anne refused to answer and turned to put the milk in a jug.
Erik went to sink to wash up. They didn't say another word to each other for a while. They just went about their day. Erik played some with the children and helped them finish up their chores around the farm.
They sent the sheep out, which took care of the grass problem. It seemed to be growing out of control at the moment.
"What's wrong with that grass cutter?" Erik pointed to the broken piece of equipment next to the stables.
"It hasn't worked in ages. No need when you have sheep to roam. It'll be winter before you know it anyway."
"Want me to take a look at it?"
"Eh, don't waste your time." Anne said in a huff.
Days passed, then weeks and sure enough winter came. A huge snowfall that stranded them indoors for a few days. They only left to feed the animals, who seemed to love that the weather had finally changed. Anne had two horses who were jumping around in the snow happily. The sheep had gone to find greener patches of land around the farm.
By the third day they had groan sick of each other and decided to venture outside. Erik made a path earlier in the week from the house to the stables and the children played along the path while Anne made some dinner.
Erik was so impressed with her. Besides the fact that she kept her farm up and running with only the help of her children, she also had two employees that worked in her shop in town.
She kept in contact with them daily, but they pretty much had things under control. She had just shaved the sheep before Erik's arrival and had been creating clothing almost every day. A man on a bike would come down the lane every so often and pick up what she had created and deliver it to her shop to be sold.
Erik watched her in amazement.
"Can I help with that?" He asked while she cooked.
"Sure." She handed him a wooden spoon and he got right to work. Anne tried her best not to hover over him.
"Can I use these?" He held up some vegetables they had collected from the greenhouse out back.
"Of course, please."
Erik took over making dinner so Anne shrunk away and knitted for a bit by the fireplace.
When Erik was done, he said this dish was similar to a meal he used to make for his family. Anne couldn't pronounce it for the life of her, but she gladly accepted and smiled.
After dinner, which was delicious, the children sat on the couch next to warm fire and played with their toys. While Anne and Erik drank wine and laughed about old times back at Charles school. Anne stayed there for a while when they first opened to help Charles out. That's where she met Erik and also her husband Nathan.
Nathan wasn't a mutant though and neither was Anne. He was a friend of Charles, also there to help when it first opened.  After long Anne and Nathan started dating and eventually moved away. That was a little over nine years ago, about the same time Erik disappeared.
"Why did you leave?" Anne asked.
"I thought it was time to move on."
"But Charles needed you."
"He needed his sister as well, but you moved on."
"I left for different reasons than you Erik. I was-"
"In love?" he interrupted her.
"Well, yes. I was."
"Right. Well so was I."
"With your wife? I thought you met her in Poland?"
"I did." Erik scoffed.
"I don't follow." Anne was so confused. But before another word Thomas came running over asking for a drink of water before bed.
"Honey, you can get your own drink from the tap, it's right there."
Anne helped him get a drink and sent them both to bed. She tucked them in one by one. Erik stood in the doorway of their rooms waving and saying "Goodnight". Watching Anne as she went about her nighttime routine.
"You're so good with them."
"Thank you." she said with a smile.
Anne started the dishes, humming her quiet tune as usual. Erik walked over to her and took her hand.
"Leave them." he said, taking a dish from her hand and placing it back into the sink.
"What are you doing?"
"Dance with me."
"Erik, there's no music."
He began to hum a tune, the same tune she was humming only moments before.
"How do you know that song?" she asked him.
"I remember it from before, when you would hum it at night back at the school."
"You remember that?"  It was a song she made up when she was a kid, but it had no words. It was just a tune. She couldn't believe he knew it.
They danced for a while and then they both walked out to put the horses back in their stalls.
"Will you show me your shop tomorrow?"
"Sure, it would be nice to go into town for a bit."

They walked back to the house and up the stairs to bed. Erik stood in the hall as Anne walked down to her room. She turned to him and whispered "Goodnight." and he replied the same.
Anne laid in bed awake thinking about the events of the evening. Repeating their conversation in her head again and again until she fell asleep.